chapter 1: The Rejection
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The drums were beating for the Moon Festival, but my heart was beating for only one thing - my 18th birthday.
Tonight, the Moon Goddess would finally give me a mate.
"Amara, stop dreaming and fetch water!" My aunt's voice cut through my thoughts like a whip.
I am just a poor village girl. An orphan. The lowest omega in the whole Black Stone Pack. I have suffered all my life, scrubbing floors, washing clothes, eating leftovers. But tonight, everything will change.
I ran to the pack square. The air was thick with excitement. All the unmated wolves aged 18 were gathered under the full moon. And there he was.
Alpha Ethan.
The most handsome, most powerful Alpha in the North. Twenty-five years old, tall as a god, eyes like ice, muscles like stone. Every girl in the village wanted him. And the Moon Goddess... the Moon Goddess gave him to ME?
Our eyes met across the fire. And I felt it. The snap. The bond. The mate bond!
Mate! My wolf, who had been silent for 18 years, finally howled inside me.
Ethan's nostrils flared. He sniffed the air. He walked towards me, step by step. The crowd parted. My heart was about to burst out of my chest.
He stopped right in front of me. So close I could smell his expensive cologne mixed with forest and power.
Then he said the words that shattered my entire world.
"Who the hell are you?"
I stammered, tears already in my eyes, "E-Ethan... I am... I am your mate..."
His face twisted in disgust. Loud enough for everyone to hear, he roared:
"I, Alpha Ethan of Black Stone Pack, REJECT Amara as my mate!"
Silence. Then laughter. Cruel, loud laughter from everyone.
"An omega? The Alpha's mate is a slave?"
"She smells like gutter!"
"Moon Goddess must be drunk!"
The rejection hit me like a knife. Pain, real physical pain, tore through my chest. I fell to my knees, clutching my heart. My wolf was whimpering, dying inside me.
Ethan leaned down, his voice cold and only for me to hear.
"You think someone like you deserves an Alpha? You are nothing. You will always be nothing. Stay away from me, you filthy omega."
He turned and walked away, to where the most beautiful girl in the pack, Jessica, was waiting with open arms.
I was left on the cold ground, broken, rejected, and humiliated on the night that was supposed to be my salvation.
But what Ethan didn't know was... as I lay dying on that ground, my blood touched an ancient stone.
And something... something powerful woke up inside me.
